


Language Barrier

by DustToDust



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: AU, Don’t copy to another site, Florists, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 16:09:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19908508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustToDust/pseuds/DustToDust
Summary: It never even occurred to Jason that a florist wouldn't know the language of flowers.





	Language Barrier

**Author's Note:**

> So, this never made it up here I guess? Let me know if it is though, I've looked and can't find it here. An idea from tumblr that was encouraged by Heartslogos that I couldn't resist. Because these two idiots are adorkable.

Jason might have a half-penned poem about the grace and beauty of a man arranging flowers buried in his office at the University somewhere. He’d made it all the way to a verse dealing with elegant fingers arranging a nosegay of carnations in different shades of red before Roy decided to blow up his phone with texts. He’d tucked it away with the vague thought of finishing it one day as a gift to the man who inspired it.

Jason still might finish it, but there’s no way in hell he’s giving it to the pretty florist he most certainly hasn’t –and Roy can shut up about it anytime now– been stalking. Especially not after the man gives Jason the kind of look he expects out of Freshmen faced with a pop quiz when Jason asked him if he should be offended by the suggestion of hibiscus flowers. Unless, of course, he meant for Jason to give them and in that case Jason would take the red ones.

Sure, it wasn’t his best line, but he’d been pretty sure on it working after the lead up he’d been working on. An aster left behind the very first day he’d walked in, a small blue violet another day, and then a white the very next…. Jason had been pretty sure he’d been making himself very clear until today.

“I should feel embarrassed for myself,” Jason eventually says. He’s too stunned –no, stupefied– at what’s happening to feel that way though. “I don’t though. I’m just embarrassed for you. You’re a florist.”

“For a man trying to ask me out, I have to say you’re doing a really poor job of it,” Tim –Timothy according to the name badge Jason’s not ashamed to admit he’d knocked over a few vases of flowers to read last month– scowls at him from across the counter fists balled up on his hips and a stray sprig of baby’s breath clinging stubbornly in his hair that makes Jason want to laugh. Or kiss him but neither looks like a smart option at the moment. “Really, the embarrassment is all on your side right now.”

“You’re a florist!” Jason points out. Again because he cannot get over that. Can’t get over the weeks he’s spent –wasted apparently– on talking boquettes for a conversation that was very much one sided. “What kind of florist doesn’t even know the language of flowers?”

And maybe Jason was just a little too incredulous saying that because Tim’s eyes narrow like he’s just been insulted. Pissed Tim looks pretty cute as well.

“Uh, the modern kind?” Tim’s lips settle into a tight little smile and Jason kinda maybe falls a little bit more in love with him. Just a little. “Hello, it’s 2017. No one knows or cares what they mean. All they want are a bunch of roses or just something pretty to put in a vase! So you can take that 18th century-”

“19th,” Jason interjects just because he can, and the glare gets upped somehow.

“-whatever back and just buy me a coffee like a regular human being!” Tim finishes by pointing to his right where Jason does remember seeing a little coffee shop.

Jason tilts his head back to squint down at Tim. Coffee is actually what he’d been planning for a while but there’s something adorable about being ordered to get it. “I still can’t believe you don’t-”

“Black. No sugar, no cream, nothing fancy,” Tim interrupts before reaching over and physically pushing Jason towards the door. “It’s too early in the morning to deal with diluted caffeine.”

“It’s after noon!” Jason laughs out even as he’s turning around.

“You’re lucky you’re pretty,” Tim shouts at his back. “Get the largest cup they have and maybe I’ll let you explain what all those flowers meant.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really remember what meanings I was going for, but Jason totally looked up a book on Victorian floriography and thought he was clever talking to Tim in his own language. Giving a hibiscus flower means the giver acknowledges the receiver's delicate beauty. A red one is a symbol of love and passion. Asters are for patience, blue violets as a declaration of love, and white to ask the receiver to take a chance at happiness.


End file.
